Posts Tagged ‘backstory’

Long before we were officially “in the market” for a house, we were avid watchers of house-hunting and home-improvement shows on the typical cable networks. And we had opinions.

I will now quote for you our original “Wants and Needs” list. This was from months before we moved here. The items with the strike are things the current house lacks or does not quite satisfy. The rest… well… it’s not a dreamhouse, quite yet, but it’s our house of dreams. Things that this house exceeds or excels in have brackets afterward.

Our House

Compiled August 2007 – April 2008

Needs:

2+ story

Symmetrical (or mostly symmetrical) from the front

Large, evenly-spaced windows

Not split-level

Off-street parking (prefer covered) [Has an original 1910 carriage house in the back with one automatic garage door and room for at least one more to be added if we care to later]

Air conditioning [dual zone!]

Wants:

Some type of porch

Vertical window panes beside door [and matching transom above]

Wide staircases

Some carpet

Panes (or pane-lines) in all the windows

Corner pantry

Cozy feel [We think it will be more cozy and less cavernous when we have furniture in it]

Bay windows and/or Tall windows

Crown molding everywhere applicable [a few of the bedrooms still need it]

Nice baseboards and window frames, nice trim & woodwork

Chair rail molding, inset bits

Nice interior doors (inset wood panels, etc.)

Kitchen island with openness to TV area

Side entry garage if attached [NA]

Split door to master bedroom

Walk-in closets

Library/study

Built-in bookcases or potential for them to be put-in

Fireplace [Two!]

Outdoor space with trellis or deck only if nice ambience [Large brick patio steps down into trellised and landscaped back garden]

Storage space [More closets than we will ever know what to do with]

No pointless room off to the side when you walk in (“Office”)

Good flow

Thick walls

Nice appearance from the back and sides (shutters, etc.) [It’s a little bare from the back, and too glassy, I think, but the sides are lovely and the back’s not bad.]

So that’s where we’re at, at the moment. Like I said tomorrow’s the inspection. I’m a little worried about asbestos insulation on the basement pipes, and whether the roof is good enough. But tomorrow the expert will be there to help us decide about these things.

My husband and I moved to this town of about 40,000 people not quite two months ago. We knew that with the academic jobs we took here, we’d be staying at least a few years, and had been dying to buy our first home for quite a while.

Our realtors took us to about 40 houses. The one that we now have under contract is a 1910 colonial revival. It was listed as a Victorian, but it’s really more of an Edwardian foursquare… basically, it’s a solid little cube of a house with an addition in the back (Consisting of kitchen below and two bedrooms above) that isn’t as old as the house but is still pre-1950, with hardwoods, etc. The house was beautiful, with everything we always said we wanted, but was way above our pricepoint.

But when the owner heard that two teachers from the university he loved so much were looking at it, he said to bring him an offer. We brought him a very low one that was the most we could convince some bank to lend us. His counter offer changed our lives: owner financing at 5% fixed interest, and the price adjusted over halfway toward our lowball offer. We kicked it around for two days — called our parents on two continents, and, finally, accepted. The house is now under contract.